Only God knows if a person is being honest with …

Comment on What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist? by Sean Pitman.

Only God knows if a person is being honest with the evidence provided and comprehended – according to one’s own God-given powers to rationally think and reason. The ability to be rationally-minded, the ability to think in a scientific manner, is a gift of God.

Otherwise, you’re correct. The same thing is true of any scientific hypothesis or theory. As Thomas Kuhn famously pointed out, science itself involves a great deal of subjectivity when it comes to making conclusions as to what the evidence really supports. One’s own background experience, mental capabilities, social influences, and overall personal biases definitively come into play when interpreting evidence.

When scientists must choose between competing theories, two men fully committed to the same list of criteria for choice may nevertheless reach different conclusions… I am suggesting, of course, that the criteria of choice with which I began function not as rules, which determine choice, but as values, which influence it.

Thomas Kuhn (1977), The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. University of Chicago Press. pp. 320-339.

This is also why empirically-derived knowledge is not the basis of salvation. Empirically-derived knowledge is the basis of rational faith and hope, but not of love or salvation. The basis of salvation must be something that is generally accessible by all to the same degree. That is why the Royal Law has been written on the hearts of all mankind and why only the Royal Law will be used as a basis for the Final Judgement. This is why others, besides Adventists or Christians or even those who believe in a God of some kind, can be saved…

Regardless, it is a mistake to argue that it doesn’t matter if one’s faith is based on one’s own understanding of the weight of evidence. It does matter. We should not be telling people that God is unable or unwilling to provide them with any more evidence than what could support wishful thinking or belief in the reality of any fairytale story. That paints the Christian religion and Biblical faith as inherently irrational – which is contrary to how the Bible depicts the equal link between faith and evidence. It also paints God as arbitrary, willing to judge and condemn (or praise) people regardless of if they understood what they did or not. I, for one, could not love such a God.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
I guess someone who accepts neo-Darwinism must have some problems with the reality of Biblical prophecy…


What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
You didn’t answer my question as to what you would do if you happened to have been in a place like Sandy Hook Elementary School when a shooter entered the building. Or, what you would do if someone threatened the lives of your own family. Also, don’t tell me that Australia has no police force or that the police there don’t carry guns…


What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
The Bible and Ellen White are very clear that Satan and his angels were forced to leave heaven just as Adam and Eve were forced to leave Eden after they fell to Satan’s charms. They are also very clear that the wicked will one day be excluded, by force, from the New Jerusalem and will, eventually, be completely destroyed from existence. I don’t think that’s how it worked with you and your family…


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Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!


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Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…


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Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…


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Where did I “gloss over it”?


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I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.

Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).

Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.